Archives for April 2009

Sometimes history can repeat itself in odd ways. William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States, but many do not know that he was appointed and served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court– Warren Harding nominee. President Harding made him Chief Justice, a position he held until just before his death in 1930. According to the whitehouse.gov website, Taft felt the appointment was his greatest honor; he wrote: “I don’t remember that I ever was President.”

My prediction for the nominee to take Justice David Souter’s position is- dare I say it– a maverick, former democratic leader, you may know by name: President William Jefferson Clinton. I assert that the deal was struck during the campaign end, maybe last June? From what I can see, being impeached as President does not prevent you from becoming a Justice.

Hillary, you get Secretary of State, and your husband can serve as a Justice. You both must back Barack Obama, campaign for him, and help unite the party. Mark my words!!!

Seems others are thinking this too, and have suspected it, but more when others thought Hillary Clintion would be the next President. Nonetheless, deals are deals. We’ll see if this opportunity or another opening will lead the way for Justice Bill.

The Arizona Capitol Times is breaking the news that CCEC will pursue removal of office of Quelland:

The Citizens Clean Elections Commission this morning could decide to take the monumental step of beginning a process to remove north Phoenix Rep. Doug Quelland from office.

***UPDATE*** The Clean Elections Commission has gone into executive session to discuss legal questions in the case against Rep. Doug Quelland.

***UPDATE*** The Clean Elections Commission has delayed a decision on whether Rep. Doug Quelland violated campaign finance laws. The next scheduled meeting of the commission is May 16, although commissioner Lori Daniels said she wanted to decide the matter more quickly.

It is still unclear what the commission intends to do and what evidence they have compiled against Quelland but what we do know is that Larry Davis is a Democratic activist with “issues” who decided to go after Quelland when Quelland refused to follow Davis’ strategic recommendation to personally attack Jackie Thrasher and a member of her family.

It has now boiled down to a “He said, he said” between both Quelland and Davis with Commission director, Todd Lang, siding with Davis. However, Commissioners are still not convinced Lang is correct in his recommendation. After emerging from an executive session, the Commission decided to postpone a decision – probably due to a lack of evidence – until May 16th.

Sonoran Alliance would also like to see the evidence in this matter given the political background of Larry Davis and another Democratic activist, Carol Vandercook.

We have TLOs [terrorism liaison officers] comprised of law enforcement officers and public safety personnel from throughout Arizona. We bring them in and train them as intelligence officers, and we supply equipment to them, and then we send them back out into the community. They are a direct tie to the AcTIC center for both information coming in and information going out…” Roger Vanderpool, Director of AzDPS

Do you know what a “TLO” is? I certainly didn’t until I ran across this interesting bit of – its either a very slick security system or a major hub of Big Brother – I’ll let you sort that one out.

Here’s where it gets interesting, conservatives are the ones who are not supposed to want a Nanny State and liberals are the ones voting in the folks who bring us more of the Nanny State, right? Imagine my surprise when I ran over this take on the matter. The article is titled, “The New Snoops: Terrorism Liasion Officers, Some from the Private Sector“. They maintain that a TLO can be police officers, firefighters, paramedics, the cable guy, and even utility workers.

That’s Roger Vanderpool chatting with Watch Center Commander, DPS Lieutenant Norris. Get a look at that media wall behind them! Want to know where all those ubiquitous intersection security cameras feed into? I’m guessing its here. I’m not sure if I should be impressed or worried.

This good readers is the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center in Phoenix, home to 32 different terrorism and enforcement related agencies ranging from DPS to the FBI, Homeland Security and many more.

While I understand the economic ramifications of a pandemic that could get out of control, there may be something to what Joe had to say. I disagree with the White House trying to dance around his remarks and his having to explain himself. If I had a wife and kids, I certainly would tell them to avoid air travel and public transit – especially here in Arizona. Why can’t Joe have the same freedom to express his wishes to his family?

The local PBS political show, Horizon, is in danger of going off the air due to cutbacks at ASU. It’s much more important to ASU to fund things like diversity outreach and pay overinflated salaries to its top officials, than operate the only local political show in town (there’s Channel 12’s Square-Off, but most people are either sleeping in or at church on Sunday mornings at 8am). Since we like the show, especially Friday’s Journalists’ Roundtable, and think Ted Simons has done a great job since taking over as host, we offer some suggestions to keep it in business:

–Hire a conservative co-host to balance out the liberal bias of host Ted Simons. You liberals are always promoting the Fairness Doctrine on the air waves, why not implement it? Someone like Stan Barnes or his #2 Alice Lara would give conservatives a reason to watch the show – and contribute. Fundraising efforts could be targeted at conservatives, conservative organizations, and businesses. Right now most conservatives wouldn’t think of contributing to PBS. If you brought conservatives on board, the show would fund itself. The reason Fox News is the most popular cable news channel is because it caters to conservatives. In order to survive in this new era of media where even broadcast journalism is suffering, you have to adapt. People have so many news sources now thanks to the interactive internet, it’s tougher to survive as an old-style biased news source.

–Modernize the show by bringing in new media. ASU has an entire department within its school of journalism working with new media ventures – consisting of student volunteers. Bring in one of them to handle things like using Twitter interactively on the show, have them set up an interactive website, and start cutting short clips from the show to send around the blogosphere to drum up interest in the show. Fox News hosts regularly use Twitter during shows – there’s a reason why they’re doing it, check it out.

If you take these steps, let us know and we’ll gladly help promote the show.

Sen. Ron Gould revealed in the Legislative Report that there is a “bunch of liberal Republicans in the House led by Bill Konopnicki that want to push more spending and a tax increase, and they have managed to hijack the budget in the House. They have thrown off most of the conservative reforms out of the BRBs…”

With the kindest appreciation, V. would like to thank Zack Rawsthorne, creator of Diversity Lane for his permissions that the Sonoran Alliance may be the Arizona home of his delightful work. V. will be posting Zack’s work daily, so be sure to stay tuned!

Governor Brewer attended this morning’s meeting of the Arizona Board of Regents in Tucson. According to the Tucson Citizen,

Brewer, who attended the regents meeting at UA Thursday morning, committed to letting the Arizona Board of Regents decide how to spend its potion of the federal stimulus package when it arrives. But she scolded and challenged the board and the university presidents about the cost of higher education.

“My personal commitment to you as your governor is for you to use the federal stimulus to best mitigate today’s proposal to dramatically increase tuition, but I require a commitment from you to reform your business model,” Brewer said.

The governor said she expects plans in her office by the fall of a new model of “accountability, predictability and affordability to taxpayers, parents and students.”

“Your budget plans must consider tomorrow,” Brewer said, emphasizing that the stimulus dollars are only available for two years. “You cannot crush or defeat the aspirations of students.”

Here are two press releases issued by the Governor following the meeting. Her remarks demonstrate a commitment to not raising tuition, higher education reform and an overhaul of the university business model:

Here is the latest taxpayer funded fiasco – a goofball piece of art designed by San Jose (CA) based artist, Marta Thoma.

Thoma’s creativity will grace the entrance to the City of Goodyear’s Public Works and Water Resources building

The taxpayers of Goodyear will foot the bill for Thoma’s art at a pricetag of $54,000.

Good grief, Goodyear. Couldn’t you find some local artist to donate his/her work to get some exposure?

We sure hope there’s no complaining about your budget, increasing water rates or laying off employees after voting for this $54K contract.

Speaking of taxpayer-funded art, maybe the city of Goodyear should take a lesson from the City of Tempe who awarded a $500 gift to local 16-year-old high school student, Max Ellinger. Max designed the artwork which will be displayed on Valley Metro buses. Cost to the taxpayers: $500. Exposure for local aspiring art student Max Ellinger, priceless.

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